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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Auburn, Alabama » Soil Dynamics Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #204668
Title: Effects of various planters on emergence and seed distribution uniformity of sunflower

Author
item CELIK, A - ATATURK UNIVERSITY
item OZTURK, I - ATATURK UNIVERSITY
item Way, Thomas - Tom

Submitted to: Applied Engineering in Agriculture
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/15/2007
Publication Date: 4/20/2007
Citation: Celik, A., Ozturk, I., Way, T.R. 2007. Effects of various planters on emergence and seed distribution uniformity of sunflower. Applied Engineering in Agriculture. 23(1):57-61.

Interpretive Summary: Two important products from sunflowers are sunflower oil and sunflower seeds. The performance of planters during sunflower planting is important for efficient production of sunflowers. Four types of planters were evaluated for sunflower planting using three planter speeds. The planters were evaluated by examining their placement of seeds in the soil and the emergence of sunflower seedlings following planting. Precision vacuum planters are commonly used for many crops, but for this sunflower planting study, the precision vacuum planter generally did not perform as well as a planter designed for no-till planting.

Technical Abstract: In this study, four different type seeders were evaluated for seed spacing, depth uniformity and plant emergence at three forward speeds (3.6, 5.4, and 7.2 km/h). The planter types were: no-till planter, precision vacuum planter, universal planter and semi-automatic potato planter. The sowing uniformity of the horizontal distribution of seeds was described by using the multiple index, the miss index, the quality of feed index and the precision in addition to the means and standard deviations of the sample methods. Uniformity of planting depth of seeds was described using the mean, standard deviation and the coefficient of variation of the sample methods. Plant emergence ratios were evaluated by mean emergence time, emergence rate indexes and emergence percentage. The best seed spacing uniformity and seed emergence ratio were obtained with the no-till planter and the best seed depth uniformity was obtained with the precision vacuum planter. Forward speed significantly affected only the mean emergence time (P<0.05). As forward speed increased, mean emergence time decreased.